Petrol on Boxing Day

[Stocky]

A Colleague of mine is driving from Calais to the French Alpes on Boxing Day, and doesn't have the French Credit Card.  He wants to know if the petrol station on the Autoroutes will be open for cash/British Credit card purchases.

[Teamedup]

Yes, they should be. It is just a normal Sunday here and the autoroute services are  usually open Sundays and I would imagine take these cards. If he's in doubt maybe he should have cash with him too.

[Baz]

Autoroutes service stations accept UK cards except the very occasional night time unmanned services which require a French card to be used in the petrol pump.

Baz

[Jc]

St. Stephen's day is a normal working day in France.

[Nelson]

"Autoroutes service stations accept UK cards except the very occasional night time unmanned services which require a French card to be used in the petrol pump"

Driving back from Urciers to Calais in the not to distant past stopped at a manned service station on auto-route which would not accept British credit card (notice on petrol pumps).

Best to have some cash.

Regards colin

[Ron Avery]

Automated machines which are like the Tesco/Sainsbury/Asda  "pay at machine or at kiosk" do not take English bank cards as there is no means of owner verification, they only take CB cards with PIN numbers, this may change as UK cards go chip & PIN.

 

However in 15 years I have never found a manned Autoroute station  that does not accept UK visa and mastercards including Egg cards.

[Nelson]

"However in 15 years I have never found a manned Autoroute station  that does not accept UK visa and mastercards including Egg cards."

All I have to say is that in 15 years you must have been fortunate enough not to stop at the same manned autoroute station that my wife and I stopped at last August.

Just trying to be helpful maybe I shouldn`t bother!!

Regards Colin

[Ron Avery]

[quote]"However in 15 years I have never found a manned Autoroute station that does not accept UK visa and mastercards including Egg cards." All I have to say is that in 15 years you must have been fortuna...[/quote]

Colin

Please read the post before getting offended, at most service stations there are machines at which you must pay at the kiosk/shop and those that are dual purpose so that when the station is closed they can be used, but they require the entry of your CB pin.  These 24 hour machines do not take UK bank cards whether the station is manned or not.  which is what I said earlier.  If the manned kiosk refused to take your card then that would be very very unusual.

[Miki]

Colin,

You have seen exactly what you have stated BUT, the sign you have seen only relates to the pumps which accept FRENCH ONLY credit cards. These are the pumps that are "24/7 automatic French card only petrol pumps", useful to many of us that live here and have French credit cards when we need juice on a Sunday and most garages around here and all over France are closed.

What Ron is saying is 100% correct, he is only stating what the original poster wanted to know, will he get petrol on Boxing Day ? and Ron says yes and that all petrol stations on auto routes (and elsewhere of course) will take UK Visa & Mastercard and most other universally accepted credit cards.

What you have mistaken is the auto pumps which do state French cards only, nothing at all to do with what is accepted INSIDE at the "cash" desk, where UK cards are accepted, no problems.

Sorry Colin but you were unfortunately barking up the wrong tree on this occasion. No need to get humpy, we all make errors....................Unless of course you wish to say that all UK cards were banned inside as well and that would be a tough one to believe ! Still if it was the only one, what are the chances of the original chap  ending up there among thousands of other garages in France ?  

[Nelson]

"Unless of course you wish to say that all UK cards were banned inside as well and that would be a tough one to believe ! Still if it was the only one, what are the chances of the original chap  ending up there among thousands of other garages in France ?  "

Yes Miki that is exactly what I am saying, very clearly stated in a hand written note on every pump and at kiosk that british credit cards could not be accepted. It may be the only petrol station in the whole of France where this so but if you happen to need petrol at this station and you only have british credit cards then don't you agree that you could be in trouble without some cash.

Ron I did read your post correctly and only posted because I thought that my experience might help some else

Regards Colin

[Miki]

Colin,

I can only imagine that the garage had accepted one or two from Brits using dodgy cards and decided to ban all UK cards, or their machine was not accepting UK type swipe cards temporarily, who knows but, it honestly is rarer than the proverbial rocking horse droppings. 

 

[Coral]

In the 2 years I have been driving around France at odd times of the year, I have had no problems with my credit cards - one American and one Japanese!! However on one occasion my cousin tried to pay with her English credit card and was refused. I handed over one of mine - no problem!

Any comments?

Coral - soon to be in Ariege - I hope!

[Russethouse]

I thought something like Visa was international - could it be that some banks or credit card facility suppliers charge a premium for processing UK cards ?

[JohnM]

Things may have changed, but when I do this route (I crossed via Le Havre last time) I usually fill up at Carrefour in Calais and then again at M LeClercs petrol station in the Dijon services. I've found these two places to be the cheapest place to fill up! Be aware, everyone else seems to know that M LeClerc is cheaper than the others, so there is usually a long long queue, if you are in a hurry then consider paying more else where.

 

[Miki]

[quote]In the 2 years I have been driving around France at odd times of the year, I have had no problems with my credit cards - one American and one Japanese!! However on one occasion my cousin tried to pa...[/quote]

Extraordinary Coral, you hit the one only garage that Colin found, what are the odds of that !!

We sometimes have trouble with UK cards here, pretty rare but is does happen and the reasons can be various. Suspected stolen card, this happened when a guest used his card for the first time in a year and the card company's security went in to overdrive and put a block on it. Over secure obviously.

We have some who use their card here after using it a few time on their holiday and again, the card company go into secure mode and stops any further dealings, suspecting the card has been stolen as it is being used abroad. Normally a quick call will unblock the cards on these occasion.

With the new UK chip and pin, we have had more problems than normal, in so much as sometimes the machine want us to take the clients pin number and very few even know what it is ! Then we have to try to get the machine to accept the old swipe method and signature. Other times it simply asks us to swipe in the normal mode. Funny times with the cards at the moment !

 

[Teamedup]

I'm OK travelling in the UK or France, I have cards from both countries and cheque books. When in another country I always have some cash on me, usually not a lot, just enough to cover any emergencies.

And the CB system wasn't working properly in our Super U the other day, it was fun, xhit happens sometimes and I prefer to cover all eventualities.

[Hagar]

I have come across two petrol stations that would not accept foreign credit cards at the kiosk - one just outside St Malo the other just east of Toulouse.

I have been told (but cannot confirm) that foreign credit cards are cleared through a different system than domestic cards in France and that the foreign card system takes longer and throws up more security checks where the retailer may be requested to phone before payment is cleared.  

Since this can also mean the retailer having to ask the customer questions (in what to the customer is a foreign language) - some retailers just can't be bothered with the hassle and refuse to accept foreign cards in the first place.

I once had a weird experience with a UK credit and switch card in IKEA which took 20 minutes to sort out - it is a long story but fits with what I've been told re different system/increased security checks.

Hagar